A high-ranking National Cancer Institute doctor says there’s not yet enough scientific evidence to know if common lawn care products such as Roundup have the potential to cause cancer.
In a letter sent to Councilmember Roger Berliner on Wednesday, Dr. Stephen Chanock summarized the research so far and wrote that “until a more comprehensive scientific understanding of pesticide-carcinogenesis is achieved,” balancing cancer risk with the benefits of pesticide use “remains a public policy judgement rather than a strictly scientific one.”
Berliner asked for the National Cancer Institute’s input because of Council President George Leventhal’s proposed ban on “non-essential” lawn care products.
Chanock, director of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the Institute, said NCI scientists typically don’t weigh in on regulatory or public policy decisions and therefore won’t take part in the Council Environment Committee’s first worksession on the bill set for Monday.
Bill supporters have said those who want lush, green laws can do so via organic means, without endangering children with pesticide-driven carcinogens.
Two layers of opposition have emerged to the bill. One, from homeowners who say they should be allowed to continue maintaining their personal lawns. And another, from trained turf management professionals who say they already apply lawn care products in safe ways to maintain healthy playing fields and plants.
As proposed, the bill would exempt golf courses and agricultural uses from the ban. Montgomery County is asking that its frequently-used 290 public playing fields be exempt too, a suggestion that Leventhal has indicated he will resist.
“Pesticides are widely used in agricultural, commercial and residential settings, and as a result pesticides and their metabolites are detectable at low concentrations in the urine of a majority of the U.S. population,” Chanock wrote. “While pesticides are broadly known to exert adverse toxic effects to humans following high-dose acute exposures; knowledge about chronic low-dose adverse effects from exposure to specific pesticides is more limited.”
Both sides have used 2012 literature from the American Academy of Pediatrics that both asserts the dangers of certain pesticides to children and says that trained pesticide professionals can use pesticides safely.
Chanock echoed that conflicting message by writing that the research with regards to modern pesticides just isn’t far enough along to provide a definitive answer.
“Indeed, application of these tools in interdisciplinary studies of highly exposed human populations has recently produced hypotheses about the potential carcinogenicity of several pesticides,” Chanock wrote.
“At this point they are simply findings that need to be tested and replicated by others to identify those with public health applications,” Chanock continued, “but the NCI and other biomedical research groups world-wide are actively involved in using the new molecular science.”
Leventhal’s legislation is modeled on a similar ban enacted in 2013 in the City of Takoma Park.
It would classify more than 100 pesticides and weed-killers as “non-essential,” including some products cleared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency but banned in Ontario, Canada and on a list from the European Commission.
This week, after a front-page Washington Post story on the proposal, Leventhal has been making his case on the local airwaves, including WAMU and conservative-leaning WMAL.
At a regular weekly press conference on Monday, Leventhal shared two emails sent to his office, one in support of the ban and one against it, to demonstrate just how contentious the issue has become.
“You are amazing and ahead of your time for recognizing and taking action to stop the harm we are doing to our planet with the use of chemicals on lawns and gardens, in general,” wrote a supporter from Fairfax.
“I deeply resent this proposed intrusion into my home life choices by a bunch of liberal thinkers who believe they know best for everyone,” wrote someone against the ban from Kensington.
PDF: National Cancer Institute On Pesticides And Cancer Risk
Photo via NIH Record
